This invention relates to suppressing or avoiding the effects of static electricity otherwise accumulated on or in textile goods dried in a tumble drier of the type commonly used in home and commercial laundries and in certain textile finishing processes.
The effects of static electrical charge generation and accumulation on drying of textile goods are well known, and have been most commonly learned from the use of home laundry appliances. Where batches of textile goods such as clothing are processed by being tumbled while heated air is flowed through the goods and the tumbler, the combined actions result in the generation of static electrical charges. The presence of such charges is most notable in the "cling" of goods so processed.
Some substantial effort has been put forth toward suppressing the effects of such static, and some commercial success has been achieved by certain products used to pursue that purpose. Methods have been proposed in which aerosol sprays are injected into a drier on loading of goods. Drying while including especially treated strips of non-woven fabrics has been developed and offered. Chemical agents to be used during a wet wash preceding a drying cycle have been developed and offered.
All such approaches use methods in which an essential ingredient is a consumable. The aerosol sprays are used up, the strips of non-woven fabric become exhausted, and the chemical agents literally wash away. Thus there has been an ongoing need for a method which avoids the undesirable economic necessity of replenishing a consumable material.